The Kentucky Resource Council’s Tom Fitzgerald has been given the Heinz award for his environmental work. The Heinz Family Foundation selects environmental leaders once a year to receive a no-strings-attached award of $250,000. This year, it’s environmental lawyer Tom Fitzgerald’s turn. The Foundation singled Fitzgerald out for his decades of pro bono work fighting abuses of surface mining laws, air and water pollution cases, and more. Awards director Kim O’Dell says Fitzgerald stood out because of his reputation.“Because he’s so highly respected by everyone in his industry, and in his state, even adversaries and people who are on the other side of the issues that he represents," O'Dell says.Previous recipients of the award include NASA climate change scientist James Hansen.